


Warm Embrace

by royallyunsociable



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royallyunsociable/pseuds/royallyunsociable
Summary: In Trunk’s future, nearly everyone is dead. There’s destruction and chaos. It’s apocalyptic.Sometimes, he needs comfort from the person who matters most to him...or at the very least, a version of that person.





	Warm Embrace

Gohan slept soundly in bed. After finishing his homework, he’d gone to bed fairly early. Just because he was a teenager, that didn’t mean his mom let up any about his studies and health. In fact, she stressed it more than ever.  
  
  
It was late, nearing midnight, when a faint sound from within his room awoke him. He sat up quickly, ready to fight whoever or whatever it was that intruded his room. But instead of a stranger, he sensed a familiar ki. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark, but when they did, he saw Trunks standing a couple meters away from his bed. Not the child that he’d known for the past several years, but the one from the Future. The same Trunks that came to them to warn them about 17 and 18 and the one that stayed with them while they fought cell. Though several years had passed for Gohan, the Trunks in front of him didn’t look much older than before.  
  
  
“What are you doing here?” Gohan whispered. His first thought was there was something dangerous that crossed their path once again, not long after Trunks returned, but when he saw the look on Trunks’s face, it wasn’t what he’d expected. There was no determination, no urgency. Only pain and something he couldn’t quite pinpoint.  
  
  
“I…” Trunk’s fists clenched and looked down anxiously. “I don’t know. I’m…”  
  
  
Gohan stood up from his bed and walked over to Trunks. “Are you okay?” The closer he walked, the more he could see the tired look in his eyes and the bags below them.  
  
  
Trunks seemed to grow more nervous by his sudden closeness, but when Gohan set his hand down on his shoulder to comfort him, Trunks jumped forward and grabbed Gohan in a tight hug.  
  
  
“Trun-!”  
  
  
“I’m sorry!” He apologized, his face against Gohan’s chest.  
  
  
At first, Gohan thought he meant he was sorry for intruding so late or for hugging him without warning, but as Trunks’s sobs began, the realization of the meaning behind those words struck him.  
  
  
“I couldn’t save you.” Trunks wept quietly, keeping a tight hold on Gohan, like he never wanted to let go.  
  
  
Gohan lifted his hand and gently set it down on Trunks’s head. He wasn’t apologizing to him, not really, but the Future him who died fighting all those years ago. “It’s not your fault.” He said quietly, trying to soothe him. “There was nothing you could do.”  
  
  
“If only I were stronger…” He clenched onto Gohan’s shirt. “You didn’t deserve it.”  
  
  
“You were a child.” He said, recalling what Trunks had told him about his timeline when they'd met. “You did the best you could. No one could defeat them.”  
  
  
“I could have-“  
  
  
“You did the best you could.” He emphasized. “Even after everyone failed, you managed to kill them. You did it.” He assumed so, anyway. It must have been the first thing Trunks did when he returned home. Gohan leaned his cheek against Trunk’s head. He could feel the boy’s sobs shake him. He’d gone through so much, but Gohan never took a moment to realize just how much. After losing everything, he helped them and then returned home to a broken world. At such a young age, nearly everyone Trunks loved died and he knew even then that he was the only hope his world had left. It all weighed down on him, but he never gave up. He was so much stronger than he knew. “I’m proud of you.” He whispered, feeling a sob coming up from his own throat.  
  
  
Trunks held him even tighter, to the point of being a little uncomfortable, but Gohan didn’t care. He only did the same, embracing the boy with the same passion. Gohan led him over to his bed and laid down with him. If those bags he’d seen under his eyes earlier meant anything, he probably hadn’t had proper sleep in a long time. Gohan rubbed at the boy's back in gentle circles, unable to see Trunk’s face, which was still hidden, pressed against Gohan’s chest. The sobs mostly died down and his breathing became slower.  
  
  
“I love you.” Trunks spoke quietly, like a shy child.  
  
  
Gohan looked down at him, slightly taken aback, but soon replied with a sincere, “I love you, too.”  
  
  
Only a few moments later, Trunks had fallen asleep in his arms. His head leaned back just enough that Gohan could see the faint smile on his face. With a soft smile of his own and a light press of his lips to Trunks’s forehead, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.  


 

  
  
The next morning, Gohan awoke to a cold bedside. Trunks was nowhere to be found and even though he’d expected as much, it didn’t stop the small pain that arose in his chest. He hoped to see him again, next time in better condition, but he knew, rationally, it wasn’t likely he’d ever see him again.  
  
  
What Gohan didn’t know was it wasn’t the first time Trunks had traveled to visit him and it wouldn’t be the last.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this quickly before I went to sleep because, as most of my ideas, it came to be late at night, when I was tired.  
> Maybe I'll write out a few more of my ideas with Future Trunks/Gohan or Future Gohan.


End file.
